25.6.04

Fahrenheit 9/11

I went to see Fahrenheit 9.11 tonight. Opening night. It was an experience. If there was a Republican in the audience, they were not vocal about it. Occasionally, there would be spontaneous clapping. There was laughing. There were tsks of disgust. There were tears. There was anger and resentment. It was actually a very emotional movie. His one mistake might have been in making some in the military look bad. Not all of them, but there were some where literally you wanted to hit them (listening to music about Iraq burning). There were some bad images that were there for shock value. The thing about his movie is, he was preaching to the choir. It was a room full of people who hate Bush. So someone who hates Bush taking to people about hating Bush - I was in the very last row, and I saw a lot of nodding heads. The movie was sold out, and when we left, the line waiting to come in, both in and out of the theatre (there were only three theatres playing it across town), the news was there to capture all the anti-Americans who were watching the movie. Blah! But understand I don't LIKE Michael Moore. He frightens me. He annoys me. I downright dislike him. I think there is a line between being (extremely!!) critical of the government and being anti-American, and he comes dangerously close to that line. Do I think he crosses it? Probably not. But he definitely blurs the line. But I think that he tells his political message (which I personally feel is important, but leave that out of this) in an amusing way. Because at the end of the day, this is a movie, I want to be amused. I do not want to waste my $8.75. I want to be amused. He can amuse in a way that few directors can right now, and whether you agree with his message or not, he's friggin' entertaining. I laughed out loud when he said that voters preferred a dead person to (sitting senator!) John Ashcroft (and not for the first time, I felt that Missouri should have taken one for the team and had him serve THEM rather than Attorney General where he can do REAL damage). But anyway, I recommend the movie.

"I should be able to love my country and still love justice." Albert Camus